Let's be real, do BYU guys do any mileage while on mission??

I have no issue with BYU and missions. Anyone at another school can arrange something similar or even better, if they think it is smart.

Of course having older athletes benefits a team. Most of you are barking up the wrong tree though, assuming it is from 2 years of secretly training.

It's simply that being 2 years older puts you closer to your prime. If a 4:05/8:50 hs runner takes 2 years completely off from sports, it only takes 6 months to a year to get back to peak form. After that your college years are 20-24, instead of 18-22, and you are much for likely to perform better in that age span.

Jakob also could take 2 years off right now, and still regain his peak form quickly later. Talent does not go away, and is a much better determining factor for results than years of continuous training.

Over at reddit the r/exmormon group has 315k members. Maybe will get some answers from them instead of the TBM's that seem to be posting

Its not some grand conspiracy; you will get answers similar to those you get on here.

Most of the mormons posting here writing about their mission experience appear to be current mormons. One of the topics on reddit is "Telling my parents I’m not going back on my mission today" is one of todays hot topics.

I originally responded to the poster who thinks those "elders" posting are dishonest and he learned that. Those who are defending their position that missionaries can't train and put in weight is one perspective and in a pool of 315k on reddit, if they posted here, another perspective for those of us not in the know

What is the other perspective? Are some missions more permissive with the 30 mins and never being alone relaxed? Are there reticent missionaries who are willing to prioritize other goals during those 2 years? If so, is this widespread or more like an isolated thing?

It seems like people who left the faith would just leave their mission and then they'd be training perhaps, but not missionaries who run 100 mpw. For the Jack Mormon only in it because of cultural and familial pressure, the companion would likely be enough to prevent doing their own thing. From what I've read here if they were lucky enough to get a Jack mormon companion who wouldn't care that they violate the 30 min free time thing, they'd only be together a couple months before being swapped out anyways. Just getting a Jack mormon companion, let along a string of them would be super rare luck. Perhaps someone with this kind of luck and who was extremely persuasive (to make their companions feel them running for an hour or more wasn't a big deal) could train - but that person probably wouldn't have gone on a mission to begin with. Its perfectly tolerated for Mormons, even men, to not do a mission - and outside of BYU it wouldn't be a big deal if they had lots of non Mormon friends.

I'm no longer a practicing mormon, for what it's worth. No hard feelings at all, just don't believe the theology.

Missionaries absolutely do not exercise often.

I served in Siberia. I ran twice in 2 years. Never heard of anyone doing more.

Once I hit Siberia, fitness vanished. We played basketball maybe once a month. I had one comp who ran XC in HS but only got him to run maybe 2 or 3 miles twice.

However, I did have to sprint for my life a few times a month if that counts as training. We stuck out like a sore thumb and groups of drunk Russian rebyata(young men) would always taunt us and often chased us to beat the snot out of us. As long as I outran my comp I was good!

One time I couldn't get away because the ground was packed ice. Legs just spun in place like a cartoon character. Got punched in the face and lost 2 teeth but otherwise came out ok.

This thread is not about the average mission. the only relevant group is top-7 BYU runners, and I feel quite confident that they run more on their missions than the average. Additionally, just plain being older is an advantage. Few professional runners don't improve after age 22, indicating 22 is not yet physical peak for distance running. So it's an advantage either way, just like it is for older Kenyans and redshirts and anyone else.

If BYU runners run one time on their mission they run more than the average missionary. How many former BYU runners have to post about this before you will believe? Or do you not care about the truth at all and are just continuing your personal vendetta on yet another “BYU hurts my fee fees” thread?

Really interesting. Why does the Church of LDS send missionaries to this part of Russia if it is unsafe?

Do you feel like if you'd been allowed to maintain fitness you could have defended yourself or got away?

Did this have any impact on your decision to leave the church?

Just using the 30 mins a day to run would be more than average, but it wouldn't make someone running fit.

I have no religious beliefs, despite growing up catholic. While there is obvious hypocrisy everywhere, whether in religion or everyday life, I still haven’t met a mormon I didn’t find nice. I admire that they dedicate 2 years of their lives to doing what they think it’s right. And man, the places they get sent to! From Bolivia to Korea or France. You notice them. And they do their best to communicate in the local language. I know it’s just typical lrc to be hateful and jealous of others, but man, this needs to stop.

The church teaches that everyone in the world deserves a chance to hear the message. Major part of their doctrine.

It's very unsafe. We had a missionary get killed in an assault just before I got there. That was extreme of course, but it felt very unsafe. Constantly on high alert.

It definitely helped shape me. My mission president was a super impressive person. He helped me see my potential and inspired me to go to med school. But other than affecting my career path, probably not a lot. I'll bust out the Russian once in a blue moon when a Russian patient shows up. It always shocks nursing staff, but isn't a useful language in AZ.

You didnt wear Nikes or other running shoes, and sort of jog between houses, take the stairs instead of elevators and so on? Just a bit of running in place, or dashing back to retrieve something dropped? Like that? You nean religion was more important than running!? Kidding.

Thanks for sharing your story.

Anyone in the missions help camp really needs to come up with an explanation for why the BYU women don't typically do them. They have the option to go for 18 months at 19, and if they helped so much you'd think it would be common for the ones older in their grades (Febuary and earlier in school year birthdays) to leave shortly after HS and come back as 20 year old college freshman. And the ones with later birthdays could redshirt the 1st semester of college, get back a bit before or a bit after Christmas, and spend the time between then and XC getting back into racing shape. So why don't they typically do that if it helps the men so much?

I can't think of many BYU women's cross country runners who have served missions, at least among the top runners. Erica Birk served one, but I can't really think of anyone else notable. It seems like there are a lot more BYU women's soccer players going these days.

DIdn't Erica also have a baby before finishing top 10 at nationals? Are the critics going to claim that this Is the BYU women's equivalent of serving a mission? Having a baby to give them an unfair advantage? Or is this just another example of BYU runners doing well despite their lack of continuous training?

I would love to see a top runner who isn't LDS take two years off training in the hopes that they'll regain their fitness and then some due to age. If anyone truly believed this, shouldn't we see American athletes trying to "game the system" to take advantage of being older?

Here is what I don't get. I can certainly believe that missionaries don't "train" and I can believe to some degree that many don't even run much if at all.

But this idea that you all come back "fat" makes me highly skeptical. (Of course we had one guy who said he came back skinny). If you took a normal random 19 year old... and had him walk five miles or more a day... he isn't going to gain weight... Much less come back "fat"... You take ANYBODY... and have them walk five miles or more a day... they aren't going to get fat unless they eat like literal gluttons.

Meanwhile Mormon culture stresses and demonstrates excellent eating habits for kids growing up. So what are you guys eating that is making you fat. Furthermore, in order to get fat you either have to have the money to buy a lot of food... and the time to cook it... or you have to eat out... which also costs a lot of money. And from what I understand... Mormon missionaries aren't exactly rolling in the dough.

So my question is how do you guys get "fat" on missions?